Posted on 10/18/2012 8:36:34 PM PDT by Steelfish
British Engineers Produce Amazing 'Petrol From Air' Technology Revolutionary new technology that produces “petrol from air” is being produced by a British firm, it emerged tonight.
Andrew Hough 18 Oct 2012 A small company in the north of England has developed the “air capture” technology to create synthetic petrol using only air and electricity.
Experts tonight hailed the astonishing breakthrough as a potential “game-changer” in the battle against climate change and a saviour for the world’s energy crisis.
The technology, presented to a London engineering conference this week, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The “petrol from air” technology involves taking sodium hydroxide and mixing it with carbon dioxide before "electrolysing" the sodium carbonate that it produces to form pure carbon dioxide. Hydrogen is then produced by electrolysing water vapour captured with a dehumidifier.
The company, Air Fuel Syndication, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol.
Company officials say they had produced five litres of petrol in less than three months from a small refinery in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside. The fuel that is produced can be used in any regular petrol tank and, if renewable energy is used to provide the electricity it could become “completely carbon neutral”.
The £1.1m project, in development for the past two years, is being funded by a group of unnamed philanthropists who believe the technology could prove to be a lucrative way of creating renewable energy.
While the technology has the backing of Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, it has yet to capture the interest of major oil companies.
But company executives hope to build a large plant, which could produce more than a tonne of petrol every day, within two years and a refinery size operation within the...
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Sounds like using corn for fuel, it will probably take more energy input than what you get out of it.
“........Company officials say they had produced five litres of petrol in less than three months from a small refinery......”
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Five liters in less than three months? I’m sure this will really be cost effective and completely eliminate the need to actually drill for oil. I expect Obama & crew to announce an award of 1/2 billion dollars to these folks any day now.
Oh my god! This is funnier than something from the onion! My wife and I couldn’t stop cracking up.
Sounds like the Solyndra execs have setup shop in the UK.
Thats what I want to know. All these stupid “breakthroughs” and “holy grails” are bunk every time we find out you have to feed more energy in than you get out.
Somehow, just somehow, even if they can truly do this, I will bet one hundred and eleventy billion dollars that it requires much more energy (just from the electrolysis part alone), than you actually get from the petrol. But with the word “climate change” inserted eleventy billion times, they are sure to get lots of free government money to develop it, and will retire in the bahamas just before the government realizes it isn’t worth the investment.
Nothing like using a couple of megawatts to produce a few kilowatts of energy, but hey we are saving the planet.
Correct, there is no way around the First Law of Thermodynamics. Depending on the effeciency of the process, though, it could be useful as a storage medium for nuclear or hydroelectric power *IF* it is cheaper than pumping oil from the ground.
Since plants need carbon dioxide to live, if this technology really works well won’t we potentially be reducing plant growth by reducing CO2 levels?
I have discovered a way to make bridges from sparrow farts. It takes a little while depending on the length of the fart and the bridge. Contact me with your bank data right away and we’ll work something out.
Such a deal! Especially when you live in a place, like the UK, where they have unlimited, free electricity to such all this ‘petrol’ out of the air for free......
Nothing like a desert planet. Maybe they can grow Arabs next.
They get them from Dragon’s teeth, i think.
And what is the cost per liter to produce it?
British Engineers Produce Something Completely Impractical In The Real World.
5 liters = 1.32 gallons. I could fill my pickup in no time.
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